• Date: c 1480
• Material: Illumination on vellum
• Lender: The British Library, Egerton MS 3028

The oldest surviving story of the building of Stonehenge was written about 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth (d.1154/5). He described how a monument called the ‘Giant’s Round’ was supposedly brought from Ireland by the wizard Merlin and set up on Salisbury Plain as a memorial to the British who were killed in a battle with the invading Saxons. This Norman verse edition, which dates from about 1480, is illustrated with Merlin dismantling or raising a trilithon.

Image credit: © The British Library Board, Egerton MS 3028

• Date: c 1655
• Material: Pen and ink on paper
• Lender: The British Museum, 1981 U.2116

These drawings were prepared for a 1655 publication on Stonehenge by the architect Inigo Jones (1573–1652), who had been commissioned by James I of England (r. 1603–25) to investigate the monument. Jones, having carried out a thorough survey, thought that Stonehenge contained precise geometrical patterns and concluded that it had been built in the Roman period as a roofless temple. These drawings show the monument as Jones imagined it complete, with an additional central trilithon.

Image credit: © The Trustees of the British Museum

• Date: 2nd - 4th century AD
• Material: Copper alloy
• Lender: Salisbury & South Wiltshire Museum

Although Stonehenge was more than 2,500 years old by the time of Roman Britain, a large number of Roman objects have been found at the monument. These include in excess of 1,500 fragments of pottery, as well as coins, pins and pieces of jewellery, such as this brooch fragment. Excavations in 2008 uncovered evidence that people were digging deep holes at the site in the Roman period too, and so Stonehenge could then have been a place for ritual activity.

• Date: 1663
• Material: Printed book
• Lender: Society of Antiquaries of London

The physician Walter Charleton (1620–1707) claimed that Stonehenge was built by the early medieval Danes, as a coronation place of kings. Set out in his Chorea Gigantum (Giant’s Round) of 1663, his theory relied entirely on the 1642 publication Danicorum Monumentorum (Danish Monuments) by the Danish antiquary Ole Worm, which contained descriptions of megalithic monuments in Denmark. Charleton thought that some appeared similar to Stonehenge.

• Date: 1740
• Material: Oil on canvas
• Lender: Lydiard House and Park, Swindon

In about 1718, the antiquary and clergyman William Stukeley (1687–1765) obtained a transcript of John Aubrey’s Monumenta Britannica, and it had a deep influence on his career and thinking. In his 1740 volume, Stukeley clearly set out his argument for the role of the native Britons, and in particular the Druids, in the construction of Stonehenge. Moving far beyond Aubrey’s ideas, Stukeley went on to argue that Druidism had been an archaic Christian religion.

Image credit: From the collection of Lydiard House and Park

• Date: Early 18th century
• Material: Brass and glass
• Lender: Museum of the History of Science, University of Oxford

The antiquary and clergyman William Stukeley (1687–1765) spent most summers from 1719 to 1724 conducting surveys and making notes and perspective drawings of Avebury, Stonehenge and other monuments. This simple theodolite, a precise instrument used for measuring angles, is similar to the apparatus that he would have used. His careful observations led to the discovery of the Stonehenge Cursus, and also the Avenue, which, he noted, aligned on the midsummer sunrise.

Image credit: © The University of Oxford for its Museum of the History of Science

• Date: 1665-93
• Material: Hand-drawn sketches and notes on paper
• Lender: Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MSS Top. Gen. c.24, f.65

John Aubrey (1626–97) conducted detailed surveys and also made observations at Stonehenge. He noted that megalithic sites were found in areas of Britain that had not been conquered by either the Romans or the Danes. This led him to the important conclusion that these monuments were built by the indigenous population, specifically the pre-Roman Druids. Aubrey never published his work, and at his death it remained a collection of manuscript notes.

Image credit: Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MSS Top. Gen. c.24, f.65

• Date: 1815
• Material: Hand-coloured aquatint
• Lender: Society of Antiquaries of London

William Stukeley's idea that Stonehenge had been built by the Druids was taken up enthusiastically by scholars and the general public alike. This is a plate from Charles Hamilton Smith and Samuel Rush Meyrick's Costume of the Original Inhabitants of the British Islands. It depicts Stonehenge festooned with banners for a Druid festival, with attendees wearing a variety of medieval and prehistoric clothes and accessories.

• Date: 2480-2200 BC
• Material: Antler
• Lender: Salisbury & South Wiltshire Museum

In 1952, a sample of charcoal from Stonehenge was sent to the scientist Professor William Libby in Chicago, United States. He applied his newly established method of dating by measuring the decay of radiocarbon. The result was 1848 BC. Later, when the information could be calibrated with tree-ring dating, the date of Stonehenge was pushed back to a millennium earlier. Today, we have nearly 70 radiocarbon dates from the site and our understanding of the dating of Stonehenge is more detailed than ever before.

• Date: 19th century
• Material: Embroidered silk
• Lender: Wiltshire Museum, Devizes

After William Stukeley's 1740 publication, various 'friendly societies' were inspired to adopt the name of the ancient Druids. By the late 19th century different groups had increasingly sophisticated ceremonies and initiation rites. Many of their medals and costumes featured images of Stonehenge, such as this sash of the United Order of Ancient Druids. By this time, archaeologists had realised that Stonehenge was much older than the Iron Age Druids.